Dairy producers need to do a number of things just right to put the best feed into, and take the best feed out of, their bunker silos. Two Wisconsin dairy families work hard to do just that.

“You have to have a passion for it, and you really have to sweat the details,” says Paul Natzke, who heads up feed operations at his family's 1,200-cow Wayside Dairy near Greenleaf. Other members of the family management team include his uncle, Dan Natzke, and cousin, Jeremy Natzke.

Over the course of a typical year, the Natzkes put nearly 30,000 tons of homegrown haylage and corn silage into 10 bunkers. The smallest bunker measures 150 × 50'; the largest is 120 × 200'.

For both haylage and corn silage, the Natzkes emphasize the importance of applying an inoculant during chopping. Their goals are to limit spoilage, extend the life of feed in the bunker and prevent secondary fermentation.

“It basically stabilizes the feed,” Natzke says. “When you put a more consistent feed in front of the cows, they eat more and have fewer health problems.

“We see it (using the inoculant) as an insurance policy,” he adds. “We put a lot of time and energy into our chopping. Spending another 50-60¢/ton on an inoculant isn't going to kill us.”

For packing, he utilizes two tractors, one with a blade to push material onto the pile, the second for packing only. Combined weight of the tractors is 80,000 lbs.

“Our goal with the blade tractor is to keep the depth of the feed layer in the pile for the packing tractor at no more than 6”,” he says. “The important thing is to keep the loads from coming in too fast. If you start putting a load on top of a load, it works against you.”

Natzke strives to achieve a packing density of 18 lbs/cu ft or more. “The industry standard is somewhere around 15 lbs/cu ft,” he says. “If you work at it,you can exceed that.”

Doing a good job of covering and sealing the bunker is another component of Natzke's bunker management game plan. His goal is to start covering within an hour of when he finishes packing. With a crew of 10 or so high school kids, he can usually finish the job in two to three hours.

The importance of getting abunker or silage pile covered and sealed as soon as possible after filling can't be overemphasized, says Keith Bolsen, professor emeritus of silage management at Kansas State University. His research shows that delaying covering for a week can nearly double dry matter losses.

“On most dairies, getting the pile or bunker covered within 12-24 hours after filling is probably a realistic target,” says Bolsen.

As with packing, Natzke emphasizes thoroughness when covering the bunker.

“As we're getting started, we have a person go over the top of the pile with a pitchfork to level out the high spots,” he says. “We want that surface to be as nice and flat and clean as we can get it.”

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